The only way for Maltese abroad to cast their vote is to hop on a plane back to Malta on a flight subsidised by taxpayers. In the age of smarter everything, Jessica Arena asks why such a costly method is still being used. It cost taxpayers more than €800,000 to fly Maltese citizens back home to vote in the 2019 MEP elections. One voter, Robert Zammit, who lives in London, finds it “ludicrous” that the only way he can exercise his right to vote is to “fly across Europe, fill a paper and pop it into a ballot box, and then fly back”. “This is making a shambles of our right to vote,” Zammit said. “Election flights cost €1,500 in subsidies for every returning voter. For many of us, the expense runs into additional hundreds of euros when one factors in additional transport costs. Subsidised flights are only offered to a small number of airports – so many of us are effectively disenfranchised.” The environmental considerations of flying and the health risks posed by COVID-19 must also be taken into consideration, he argues, as the next general election looms next year. “At a time when our prime minister is busy flaunting his environmental credentials at COP26 in Glasgow, flying...